Chuck,

Thanks for responding to this.

I think that the term "diversity of tactics" is fairly widely used these days and means different things to different people. This is part of the larger question. For some this is going to mean using "tactics" that put many anarchist principles in question. The looser the anarchist principles are in any given context, the more people will be able to push these priniciples claiming that they are nothing more than "ortodoxy".

In response to this particular situation locally, we have heard various justifications for this situation. One line of justification was that some people on the right are OK because they like anarchists. Another line of justification was that inside an organization, the member groups need to have total autonomy and telling them what they can or cannot do is authoritarian.

The former argument also is rather problematic, because again it implies that just about anything goes. Such attitudes undermine the meaning of anarchism and undermine the coherence of the movement.

Just something to think about. I sincerely hope that the people in question will reconsider these positions and change, but I honestly doubt that it will happen but every year it seems that the influence of the non-anarchists becomes stronger and stronger and they take more and more steps in other directions.

Some people in the Workers' Initiative are protesting at demanding the removal of those people:

http://cia.bzzz.net/oswiadczenie_ip_slask_w_zwiazku_z_udzialem_lubuskiej_komisji_srodowiskowej_ozz_inicjatywa_pracownicza_w_wyborach_samorzadowych

Statement of IP Silesia regarding the participation of the Lubuski Commission of Workers Initiative in the 2010 Elections

We demand the immediate exclusion of the above named commission in connection with its activities which are contrary of the ideas of anarchosyndicalism. We treat this trangression as an attempt to take over and force priorities other than WI were supposed to have on the union. We interpret this move as a planned attack on the anarchosyndicalist doctrine and to be clearly aiding state structures, which is against our basic values.

We are not surprised by the above-mentioned collaborators' attempt to get into power, using our union for this purpose. However we are surprised by the support of our "comrades" from Poznan and the lack of reaction from other cities. Joining the union which declared itself as anarchosyndicalist, we were sure of its foundation, just like now we are not sure of our participation in WI. We remember the declarations from a few years ago concerning the use of the unions' symbols during election campaigns - that whoever would appear in a union T-shirt while conducting election campaigning would be kicked out of WI. Then we "trusted" this declaration. Now the Lubuski Commission used the name of the union, announcing the start of an election campaign by WI, which is, in our opinion, a serious trangression.

At this time we are waiting on the reactions of other commissions which have not taken a position on this matter yet.

I know that the meanings of phrases change over time and probably mutate more when they are translated to another culture, but sometimes you just have to tell so-called "anarchists" that they are full of shit. Working with right wingers? That's fucking insane.

My approach to these things is to educate, ostracize, confront and be obnoxious if necessary,

People these days believe some idiotic crap. Including so-called anarchists.

Chuck0

These right wing people referred to have 2 things going for them: 1, a semi-monopoly on anti capitalism as it's mixed with nationalist politics, and 2 a lot of sympathy from the workers who are being fucked over from the new realities of modern capitalism.

So if you look at the revolutionary movement of Solidarnosc as a historical example, it's hard to say "working with right wingers is insane" when you're actually successfully building a revolution strike by strike. A mass workers movement for freedom is always diverse. I'm not saying I stand by people who work with nationalists, but I understand that the Political situation outside of the West is a lot more dynamic than the Republican/Democrat scheme in American politics. I'm not sure where I stand, but people should stand firm on their push to build social movements. Imagine if we said we won't work with people who have sexist tendencies ... there goes +49% of your movement.

This is the historical question anarchism is plagued by ... do we work with people in the short term to build for the long term (whether authoritarian communists or right wing nationalists) or do we make ideologically pure standards and end up with mass movements of 10 people ?